Hi Friends! Today, I’ll be spotlighting two new paperback releases — Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, and Shruti Swamy’s The Archer. The Book of Delights is a collection of essays, whereas The Archer is literary fiction — both are genres I want to read more of. When Algonquin reached out to see if I was interested in a blog tour for both, I jumped at the opportunity!
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Hello friends! We can’t believe that the month of August is almost over, time is flying. We have absolutely loved reading PORTRAIT OF A THIEF with everyone, and we’re super excited to share our discussion questions and thoughts with you!
A quick reminder that Mary is on an indefinite hiatus, and you can catch up with her on @bookswithmary!
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Hi my friends! It has been a whirlwind of a month — I hope that you’re all doing well! This past week I’ve had family visiting so I’ve been pretty busy. Because of that, I thought it would be a great time to do some mini reviews! So, grab a cup of your favorite tea and get cozy.
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Read moreTwo sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.
Despite having had near-identical upbringings, sisters Annalie and Margaret agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn’t wait to leave their oppressive small-town home and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie couldn’t think of anything worse – she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines.
That is, until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.
Outraged, Margaret flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms. Instead, she’s amazed to hear they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a ‘normal’ summer – which Margaret is determined to ruin, apparently.
Back under each other’s skins, things between Margaret and Annalie get steadily worse – and not even the distraction of first love (for Annalie), or lost love (for Margaret) can bring them together.
Until finally, a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever.
Read moreAn insider’s account of Hong Kong–from its tenacious counterculture and robust underground music scene, to its unique history of youth-led protest–that explores what it means to survive in a city of broken promises.
Nothing survives in this city. But in a place that never allowed you to write your own history, even remembrance can be a radical act.
Hong Kong has long been known as a city of extremes: a former colony of the United Kingdom that today exists at the margins of an authoritarian, ascendant China; a city rocked by mass protests, where residents once rallied against threats to their democracy and freedoms. But it is also misunderstood and often romanticized, its history and politics simplified for Western headlines. Drawing richly from her own experience, as well as interviews with musicians, protesters, and writers who have made Hong Kong their home, journalist Karen Cheung gives us an insider’s view of this remarkable city at a critical moment in history—both for Hong Kong and democracies around the world.
Coming of age in the wake of Hong Kong’s reunification with China in 1997, Cheung traverses the multifold identities available to her in childhood and beyond, whether that was her experience at an English-speaking international school where her classmates would grow up to be “global citizens” struggling to fit in with the rest of Hong Kong, or within her deeply traditional, multilingual family. Along the way, Cheung gives a personal account of what it’s like to seek out affordable housing and mental healthcare in one of the world’s most expensive cities. She also takes us deep into Hong Kong’s vibrant indie music and literary scenes–youth-driven spaces of creative resistance. Inevitably, Cheung brings us with her to the protests, where her understanding of what it means to belong to Hong Kong finally crystallized.
Weaving together memoir, cultural criticism, and reportage, The Impossible City transcends borders to chart the parallel journeys of both a young woman and a city as they navigate the various, sometimes contradictory, paths of coming into one’s own.
Hi friends! We’re so excited to announce that for our September TeaTimeReads pick, we’ll be reading THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY by Kay O’Niell! With graphic novels being on the shorter side, we decided to read all three books in the series. We can’t wait to read and discuss with you!
Here is the full summary for The Tea Dragon Society:
From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes The Tea Dragon Society, a charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons.
After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives—and eventually her own.
Here is the full summary for The Tea Dragon Festival:
Rinn has grown up with the Tea Dragons that inhabit their village, but stumbling across a real dragon turns out to be a different matter entirely! Aedhan is a young dragon who was appointed to protect the village but fell asleep in the forest eighty years ago. With the aid of Rinn’s adventuring uncle Erik and his partner Hesekiel, they investigate the mystery of his enchanted sleep, but Rinn’s real challenge is to help Aedhan come to terms with feeling that he cannot get back the time he has lost.
Here is the full summary for The Tea Dragon Tapestry:
Join Greta and Minette once more for the heartwarming conclusion of the award-winning Tea Dragon series!
Over a year since being entrusted with Ginseng’s care, Greta still can’t chase away the cloud of mourning that hangs over the timid Tea Dragon. As she struggles to create something spectacular enough to impress a master blacksmith in search of an apprentice, she questions the true meaning of crafting, and the true meaning of caring for someone in grief. Meanwhile, Minette receives a surprise package from the monastery where she was once training to be a prophetess. Thrown into confusion about her path in life, the shy and reserved Minette finds that the more she opens her heart to others, the more clearly she can see what was always inside.
Told with the same care and charm as the previous installments of the Tea Dragon series, The Tea Dragon Tapestry welcomes old friends and new into a heartfelt story of purpose, love, and growth.
Links for The Tea Dragon Society: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
Links for The Tea Dragon Festival: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
Links for The Tea Dragon Tapestry: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound
We’ll be doing a loose reading schedule this month, but of course, feel free to read at your own pace.
Content Warnings for The Tea Dragon Society Series: blood, violence, abandonment, injury/injury detail, animal cruelty, animal death, confinement, death, memory loss
We hope that you have a lovely rest of the month and we look forward to reading THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY in September!
Hi friends, and happy Wednesday! If you didn’t know, I’m fully in my annotations era, and I figured today would be a great time to share my favorite annotation supplies, as well as how I like to annotate — so grab a cup of tea, and get cozy!
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Hi friends! Today, I’m so excited to share this guest post by Gina Chen, author of Violet Made of Thorns on fairytales within fairytales, while still creating a new story. Without further ado, read her post below!
Read moreViolet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased—and not always true—divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer—unless Violet does something about it.
But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.
Violet’s wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can’t change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom—or doom them all.
Read moreViolet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased—and not always true—divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer—unless Violet does something about it.
But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.
Violet’s wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can’t change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom—or doom them all.
Happy “salt air and the rust on your door” month to all that celebrate! With August comes the end of the summer camp program that I run — we officially wrap up on the 12th — and I’ll be taking some time off work to rest and recharge before starting our fall programs. I’m planning on getting a lot of reading done in the 2 weeks I’ll be off work and I thought it would be fun to share some of my August TBR with all of you!
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